♪♫ It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring…♫

Yep, that’s been my world for the last couple of days.  I got up to rain at 4:00 yesterday morning to get ready for the Detroit Lakes Bird Festival tour of Tamarac NWR.  Steve, Rachel, and I got to Detroit Lakes just in time to hop on the bus as it was ready to pull out at 5:30.  I felt like a zombie.  Once back on the refuge, we got out to hike around at several places and look for birds in the rain.  I had worn my raincoat with a sweatshirt underneath, but by the time we were half way through the tour I was really feeling cold and clammy.  When the bus stopped very near my rig for folks to get out and walk around, I bailed from the tour.  Call me a chicken if you like, but I had had enough.  Just not the dyed in the wool birder that I used to be.

By yesterday afternoon, the skies had cleared and Emma and I hopped into the car to explore a few more of the roads on the refuge.  We got a nice view of a trumpeter swan in our travels.  This was after I once again made a wrong turn and drove about 20 miles out of my planned route.  I was armed with maps and all, but after stopping to buy some night crawlers for fishing, I goofed.  Grr.  I hate being directionally challenged!  As we returned home, the rains began once again.

It rained most of the morning today.  Late this afternoon, the sun came out once again, and I decided to hang a couple of bird feeders out even though the holder pole was bent over from the bear.  I tried to bend it back to upright, and the best I could do was get it to about a 45* angle.  The birds don’t seem to mind though, and blasted in within minutes.

It kind of surprised me to have a pretty good sized flock of pine siskins descend.  I have always thought of pine siskins as winter time birds, but then I am a bit further north than I’ve ever resided before.  The bird checklist for the refuge lists them as uncommon in spring and summer, but they sure weren’t uncommon today.

A female red-winged blackbird even stopped by for a look at the offerings at the Hard Rock Bird Café.  She didn’t stay long, but I bet she’ll be back.

I’ve had Baltimore orioles before if I put out oranges, and they do try to get some of the sugar water out of the hummingbird feeder, but this is the first time I’ve seen one eat some of the thistle seed.  This is a female, and the male often visits the hummer feeder.

Through all of this bird business, Emma was her calm uncaring self.  It makes me chuckle to see the way she crosses her front legs when she is relaxed.  She remained this way until just after her dinner.  Then she began pacing around.  She can sense ahead of time when a rainstorm with thunder is coming.  Sure enough, after I took my camera back inside, the rain and rumbles returned. 

The forecast for my next three work days looks pretty wet as well.  Lots of school kids coming on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so I’m not sure how that’s going to turn out.  Can you just imagine 100 first graders planting trees in the rain??  Sounds like a mud bath to me! 

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

A marauder in the night?

I had today off so thought I might sleep in this morning.  Nice plan, but it didn’t work.  I was up by 6:30 as usual to get dressed and take Emma on her first outs.  What a surprise we had when we walked out the door.

Yesterday, after it took me and fellow volunteer Steve some time to pound the Hard Rock Bird Café holder into the ground, the birds flocked to both of the feeders I hung up almost immediately.  This morning, everything was asunder.  The pole was bent over, and the now empty feeders were scattered about.  Egad!  What could be strong enough to bend the pole like this?

I checked the feeders outside the temporary headquarters building, and they were  either bent over or mashed as well.  This was definitely not the work of some chubby raccoons!

There was only one animal that I could think of that would cause this kind of destruction…

… a bear!  Sure enough, some time during the night, a black bear, recently emerged from hibernation, decided to amble through the maintenance compound looking for something to eat.  As a result, all bird feeders have been shut down on the refuge for the time being.  Staff suspects the bear will be back tonight to make another round.  This is not a common occurrence here.  Every couple of years or so, a bear will wander through in spring and cause a little havoc on the feeders.  Wouldn’t you know, it would pick the day I put up my feeders to wander through.

Good old ‘wild child’ Emma never even woke up to alert me to this big intruder on her domain.  When I took her out this morning however, her hair was standing on end!  Phfft!  A protector she is not!

For some reason, the bear ignored the hummingbird feeders at both my site and at headquarters.  The ruby-throated hummers got their feeding in when the Baltimore orioles weren’t trying to take advantage of the sweetness.

During the afternoon, the locals squawked at me wondering where their brief food source had gone.  Sorry guys, there’ll be a slight hiatus until the bear moves on, and I figure out how to straighten out that bent post.

I’m slated to go on the bird festival bird tour of the refuge for tomorrow morning.  What that means is I will be getting up at four in the morning so I can be in Detroit Lakes by 5:30.  Uf-dah!  That’s too early in the morning in my estimation.  I guess that’s why I’m a ‘birdwatcher’, but no longer an avid ‘birder’.  I’ll survive, I suppose, but I’d much rather wake up naturally as opposed to an alarm…

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

First day on the job

Spent the morning shadowing the Environmental Education Programs for about 100 kindergartners from Detroit Lakes.  I could do most of the education stops except the one where the volunteer had the kids singing along with puppets.  Have I mentioned that I, at one time, was a high school math teacher?  Singing ditties about little baby bluebirds with five and six year olds is really not my forte.    I can do mimicking frog and toad sounds with a group, but I sure hope I don’t get the puppet assignment!

I was snapping off pictures as I went to each station for tonight’s post, but noticed, eventually, that the camera kept mentioning there was ‘no card’.  I remember forgetting a couple of years ago to put the card back into the camera when I was in Yellowstone, but I was sure I had done that last night after downloading pics of my site here.  I checked, and sure enough, the card was in the camera, but it just wasn’t being recognized.  Ugh!  I hoofed my way back to my car to install a back-up card, but by that time most of the activities were over with.

So, as I headed back to the rig for lunch, I decided to take a trip down the Blackbird Wildlife Drive.  I need to familiarize myself with what is available for visitors.  This is a pretty typical view of the north woods lakes that are encompassed by this wildlife refuge.

Around one of the bends in the road, I encountered a Canada goose.  I think she may have been sitting on a nest of eggs.  While the geese are leading their young around already not too far south of here, it’s only been about a week and a half since the ice has left these northern lakes.

I found a pair of trumpeter swans feeding in one of the wetlands along the drive.  It was so nice to see some of these birds after hearing their trumpeting yesterday after my arrival.

After lunch I met with Janice, the volunteer coordinator, to get the necessary paperwork out of the way for my volunteering here.  As we were finishing up, Neil, the refuge manager, came in and asked if I would like to go with him to see the energy retrofit that was in progress at the Visitors Center and refuge headquarters.  I jumped at the chance.  This building is closed right now until the fall to make it more energy efficient.  It was an interesting tour.

While we were driving there, I mentioned that I was interested in taking up my long dormant interest in fishing while I was here.  That peaked his interest, so after walking through all the construction, he took me on a tour of the refuge.  It’s not often a refuge manager will take the time to drive a volunteer around.  I learned a lot, and he showed me about four good places for fishing from the shore.  I don’t really care for ocean fish, but I love fresh water fish.  I’ve got a nicely stocked little tackle box, but it’s on my list tomorrow to buy a license and fishing pole.  Crappies, perch, sunnies, and maybe walleyes look out!  I’m on the hunt.

Late this afternoon, after I got back to the rig, I set up the Hard Rock Bird Café in my front yard.  I couldn’t believe it when within five minutes, I had purple finches, American goldfinches, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and Harris’ sparrows visiting the seed feeders!  After about a half an hour, ruby-throated hummingbirds also began visiting their feeder.   It usually takes a week or more for birds to show up at a new feeder.  I was amazed and happy.  Guess I’d better add bird seed to my shopping list for tomorrow along with the fishing pole.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

I’m home for the summer!

Finally!!  When I got up this morning, there were shockingly calm winds in Summit, SD.  Yahoo!  I packed up and was on the road by 8:00.  Only about 180 miles to go to reach my destination.  The drive went smoothly for a change, and I was even able to gas up at a Love’s station outside of Fargo, ND, with the minimum amount of stress.  (there’s always stress involved with finding a gas station I can get in and out of easily)

By 1:00, I was in my site at Tamarac NWR and took my time settling in.  What a relief to finally arrive here.  There are only two sites for RV volunteers, and they are both very nice.  The staff that helped me move in told me that the sites have only been here about three years or so, and were designed as if the staff would be living here.  You can tell they took some thought into making these sites.

                             The rest of the pics tonight are the views from my rocker in my front yard.

Both sites are located on the top of a hill overlooking Flat Lake, and in my case, a creek leading into it.  There’s also lots of space between the two sites.  This definitely rates just about at the top of the list of all the volunteer sites I’ve been in.  Some refuges pack you in tight.  I don’t need to hear the bodily functions of my neighbors. 

Besides the nice view and distance from my neighbor, the hookups are placed perfectly for water, sewer and 50 amp electric.  There are also two water pipes at each site.  One has soft water for use inside the rig, and the other one is for outside usage of water such as washing your rig.  I’ve never run into that before.  Can’t remember the last time I had soft water.

I think one of the reasons my trip went so well today was that I climbed up on the roof of the rig last night.  That awning really had me worried.  I took a bunch of zip ties with me.  Even though the wind was still blowing blue blazes, I knew if I didn’t do something I’d be a wreck for the whole trip.  I used the zip ties to secure the arm as best I could, and came down with my fingers crossed.  It worked.

Then this morning, I had a comment from Paul Dahl that suggested the exact same thing.  I couldn’t wrap bungee cords around it the way he had, but my fix was good enough to get me here.

As I sat outside with Emma early this evening, two flocks of white pelicans soared overhead; the spring peepers were peeping, the trumpeter swans were trumpeting, and the common loons were yodeling.  I’m one happy camper tonight.   

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

Stymied again

I bet you all thought I was too busy getting set up at Tamarac to blog about it.  Yea, well, it hasn’t happened yet.    This will be the third night I have been stuck in Summit, SD.  The horrible winds on Saturday were just a precursor to Monday and Tuesday.  No way I’m driving in 30 mph winds with gusts up to 50!  What a welcome to the prairie lands.

The winds were so strong yesterday, that it popped the awning out again at the back while we were just sitting here!  So much for the duct tape idea.  I was back up on the ladder this morning pounding it back into place before the next blast began.  I’ll be checking it again in the morning. 

Tomorrow is another day, and hopefully there won’t be another wind advisory.  I’ve about had my fill of those for the time being.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

Just a note ♫

Many of the comments on yesterday’s post made great sense to me, so I took your advice and didn’t try to make it all the way to the refuge today.  I’m spending the night in Summit, SD, and will make the final push to Tamarac tomorrow. 

On a most positive note, the wind was almost nonexistent today so I had a smooth 145 mile trip.  Best of all, after once more climbing up the ladder to use duct tape on the awning arm before I left this morning, the awning stayed where it was supposed to all day.    Several folks suggested tying the arm with rope or Velcro or something.  I have to explain that this is one of those automatic awnings, and there’s nothing to tie off.  There is no space between the arm and the rig.  It’s flush against the side of the rig, so duct tape was my only option at this time.

Of course, that didn’t mean that whole trip was uneventful.  There’s always something, isn’t there?  Once I set up at my site here in Summit, I went back to retrieve the keys out of the toad and set the emergency brake.  My fob wouldn’t open the lock so I had to use the key in the door.  Odd.  Also, no dinging went off when I opened the door.  That told me something was up.  Turned out to be user error.  I have a stick shift car that I tow, so I put it in neutral and turn the key one notch up before leaving.  I always double check that, but this morning I didn’t.  Dang!  Seems I turned it a little past one notch, and the battery was dead as a door nail.

I went to see the host to see if he had jumper cables.  He did, we hooked them up, and still nothing.    Summit is a very small town in South Dakota.  The host said he’d call the local car repair guy in town even though it was a Sunday because he thought my battery was a goner.  I kept my fingers crossed. Within ten minutes the repair guy arrived with a portable jumper to give it a try.  It worked!  When I asked him what I owed him, he said, “Ten dollars ought to do it.”  Wow!  You can bet I gave him a nice tip for his trouble.

For some reason, I never even thought of calling my road side assistance plan.  I can’t imagine that they could have done any better than this local fellow did for me.

As far as the ♫ (note) is concerned?  I only get a couple of channels on the TV antenna here.  I often like to have the TV on in the background as I write.  I can’t believe the best channel reception just had ‘The Lawrence Welk Show’ on from 1956.  My dad died that year when I was eight years old.  Once my mom began dating again, she made us watch Lawrence Welk each Saturday night while she got ready to go dancing.  Ugh!  I can’t believe I had that on.  You go Myron Floyd!  Bubbles and all…

I guess this turned out to be more than a little note…

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy 

Will I ever get there?

I was up at almost the crack of dawn this morning because I wanted to take a window of opportunity to get to my next stop before the wind storm started.  We rolled out of the KOA right at 8:00 and headed north.  Seems the weather guessers were wrong once again, and the winds rolled in very shortly out of the north.  It seemed a struggle to move down the road, and I literally watched the gas gage move downward.

After about an hour and a half, I noticed that dreaded gap of light from the awning once again in my rear view mirror.  Shucks!  I slowed way down and exited the highway where I could get some gas.  My plan was to fill up, get the ladder out and push the awning back, and head onto my next destination.  What was I thinking?  At this point, the wind was blowing in the 30 mph range and I knew I couldn’t go on let alone fix the awning.

Luckily, this gas station had a campground connected to it.  So here we are.  Stuck once again.  After only 60 miles, I was set up to spend the night by 10:30 in the morning!  The wind has been so strong that I couldn’t even put out the living room slide for fear the slide topper would rip off.  Emma has been as nervous as when we are in a terrible thunder and lightening storm. 

I didn’t even make it to Sioux Falls, so we are about 320 miles from Tamarac NWR, and I have a dilemma.  They are expecting me tomorrow, and one of the interns will stay on call to open the gates for me so I can get to the RV site.  I know I can call the intern, and tell her I can’t make it, but this journey has seemed to go on forever and ever.  I’m anxious to get there.  I guess I’ll just have to see how the winds are in the morning. 

Along about 5:30, the winds had abated to about 25 mph, so I set up the ladder to try to fix the awning, again.  You’ll just have to imagine me perched near the top pounding on the arm.  At least this time I could lean back against the slide out for stability.  I got it in, but I sure hope I don’t have to stop every 75 miles or so to do this tomorrow.  Cross your fingers for me. 

I would have gotten on the roof to see if I could secure the arm except for two things.  First, it scares me to go up there, and second, I figured I might get blown off and flown down to the Gulf of Mexico!  I like gulf shrimp, but I sure don’t want to be one! 

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

P.S.  Hope you know that I appreciate being able to vent my frustrations on you all…